Games industry: Time is ripe for PSP Phone

Enthusiasm for Sony gaming handset

Johnny Two-Shoes co-founder Maxwell Scott-Slade believes that the PlayStation brand itself will be a key, with people still not considering the current mobile gaming offerings as reasons to buy a handset.

"People who know and love the Playstation brand are more likely to be drawn to the Playstation Phone for gaming, rather than a phone that also does gaming," he said.

"A lot of gamers still don't take the iPhone seriously as a gaming platform, and the introduction of a behemoth brand like Playstation could help change those minds."

PSP phone - damage the brand?

Damage the brand?

There was one dissenting voice, however, with Games Ivestor Ltd analyst Nick Gibson suggesting the PSP Phone could actually damage the brand.

"With PSP2 SDKs currently being deployed to developers and PSP still selling at surprisingly robust levels (given the miniscule size of ongoing PSP software sales), the PlayStation Phone concept is something of an enigma," warned Gibson.

"Where and how will it fit into the PlayStation family of products? While a PlayStation-branded game phone might make commercial sense to Sony Ericsson, Sony Computer Entertainment's approach to hardware is radically different, and there are numerous scenarios where such a product could do more harm than good."